Crafting Democracy

Crafting Democracy showcases how objects of material culture can provoke and engage everyday citizens, including those of marginalized identities, as productive tools in deliberative democracies. Craft can also aid those wanting their voices to be amplified through the process of making. The works on display in the Crafting Democracy exhibit come from Rochester-area residence of all ages along with that of art-activists (“craftivists”) from across the U.S. and abroad., who use the traditional tools of craft (yarn, thread, textiles) to make statements about socio-political, cultural, and economic issues that have engaged them, prompting them to turn to craft as a pathway to positive change, and a tool for enacting social justice.